


Rough Trades

by I_glitterz



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), Tommy Ratliff (Musician)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Stranded, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-15
Updated: 2011-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-26 03:03:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/277952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_glitterz/pseuds/I_glitterz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam and Tommy escape from a kidnapping and end up walking around in the woods. Tommy hates Adam for making him feel so much when all Adam has done is string him along like a puppet, and right about now, he really wants to shut Adam up for good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rough Trades

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for my H/C bingo card: Stranded/Survival Scenarios.

Of all the people in this fucking world for him to be stuck with, it had to be the very last person he wanted to be around. His anger and rage toward Adam for everything that had happened to him, for all the feelings he made him feel was unlike anything he had ever felt before. He hated the way Adam made him feel.

Walking deeper into the woods with a six foot drama queen behind him made Tommy want to rip his fucking hair out. The only thing he’d heard for the last two hours was Adam whining about walking so much, needing to rest, and for the love of all that is mighty in this fucked up world, Tommy was ready to punch him in the face, just to give him something new to bitch about, because the same shit for two hours is too much.

“Quit fucking whining, Adam. You’re not helping this situation and I’ll be damned if we get caught by those fuckers who kidnapped us because you had to stop and rest.” Tommy growled, shoving a branch out of his face and getting a sick twist of satisfaction when he heard Adam grunt. Fucker better hurry along or Tommy was going to leave his ass in the middle of this place.

“God, what the hell was that for, Tommy? You couldn’t have held the branch for me? Or at least waited until I was out of the way before you let it go?” They’ve argued over less and right now, Tommy was itching to just shut Adam up for good. He kept his calm though, realizing that killing Adam wasn’t going to do anything for him but leave him alone, and if Tommy learned anything in boy scouts when he was younger, it was that two pairs of eyes were better than one, and the buddy system needed to be the main priority in a situation like the one they were in.

They were stranded, nothing anywhere they could use to catch someones attention or call someone for help because those motherfuckers took their cell phones and were right behind them, scoping out the area with guns in their hands, ready for a pin to drop so they could shoot it. Tommy didn’t feel like getting shot; kidnapped was enough without the serious risk of injury, fuck you very much.

“Oh, like I meant to do it on purpose. Fuck off, Adam.” Tommy so did it on purpose, but he didn’t voice that, just kept walking not caring if Adam was following at the moment.

“Listen asshole, I don’t know what your fucking issue is, but if we’re gonna get out of this alive, you need to watch your fucking mouth before I watch it for you,” Adam warned and Tommy laughed humorlessly.

“Whatchya you gonna do? Kiss me like you did on National. Fucking. Television?” Oh yeah, Tommy was so not over that one. He was still pissed off that that shit happened. Adam didn’t have any respect for anyone other than himself, and Adam’s fucking selfish ways had ended up with his tongue shoved down Tommy’s throat on National TV. Needless to say, Tommy really fucking hated Adam Lambert: Sex God Extraordinaire.

“Are we seriously going back to that again? I apologized! What else do you want from me?!”

Tommy shrugged and turned away from Adam.

Adam sighed. “Look Tommy, I’m sorry, alright? It was a spur of the moment thing and it got way out of control. Can we just... Move on from it, please? It happened ages ago!”

Tommy growled, but didn’t answer. He kicked a rock and then right before he slapped Adam with another branch, he heard it and stopped dead in his tracks. “You hear that?”

“What?”

Tommy turned to Adam. “The sound of water. That means we’re near a creek, come on.” Tommy started walking faster, wanting to find that creek. When they reached the bank, stepping on slick rocks and snapping twigs under foot, Tommy watched the water run, seeing that it was going past them to the left. “We should follow it, maybe it’ll help us get out of this place and find someone, or at least, something to eat.”

“Okay, follow me.”

“I said follow the creek, Adam, so I’m gonna follow the creek.” Tommy knew what Adam meant, but fuck if he was gonna follow Adam around like a puppy. He turned on his heel and followed the creek down the bank to the left. Adam could do what he wanted, but Tommy was going to do what his instincts told him.

“Wait up, Tommy! Slow down!” Adam yelled from behind him, but he didn’t slow down, just kept walking.

A few moments later, Tommy felt someone grab him and then there was a tree digging into his back. “Ouch! What the fuck, Adam?”

Adam glared at Tommy then grabbed his shirt and pulled him close, his breath ghosting across Tommy’s cheeks. “This attitude can stay back there with the freaks that took us, agreed? Because if I have to deal with you _still_ being pissy about a fucking kiss, I swear to God I’ll do it again, and this time it won’t be a spur of the moment thing. Now, are you done?”

Tommy glared at Adam and then shoved him back. “You wouldn’t even get close enough, Lambert. Just try and see what happens.” Tommy may be small, but he was pretty sure that Adam was bluffing and he wasn’t falling for that. He’d kick Adam’s glittery ass.

“Keep acting like an asshole and you’ll find out soon enough, trust me.”

“Not with my fucking life,” Tommy spat, turning around and stomping away, hearing an angered growl from Adam. Fucker didn’t own him.

~~~~

“I think I found a place to crash, come on, it’s this way,” Adam grabbed Tommy’s arm and steered him away from the creek and towards a small clearing with a dirt ground and leaves everywhere.

Tommy looked at it critically. “I may not be as high maintenance as you, but I do have lines. And this is way past the line of comfort.”

“It’s either this or death; pick.” Adam grabbed all the sticks and leaves he could find and piled them in the center of the clearing. “Help me. We need to start a fire of some sort if we’re gonna stay warm and eat something. We have a few hours of daylight left, we should try to catch some fish or something.”

Tommy grabbed some sticks and a rock, hoping it would start a fire or at least make a spark. Actually trying to start a fire was harder than how they showed it in the movies. Tommy’s arms were starting to hurt from constantly turning the stick and blowing and rubbing it together with another piece of wood. Suddenly, there was smoke and then a small flame. “Ha! I did it.” Tommy grabbed some dry leaves and crumbled them over the top of the flame, making it grow higher.

Soon they had a nice fire and Tommy was covered in moss, dirt, and something yellow that he didn’t want to know how he got on his hands.

“We should try to catch some fish now. I’ve fished all of twice in my life and that was because my dad wanted a father-son-son weekend with Neil and I, so I might be shit at it.”

Tommy smirked. “Well lucky for you, my dad and I used to fish all the time, let’s go. We need to find a sturdy stick and maybe some thick vining.” Tommy walked towards the creek, looking for a stick he could use and found one. He picked it up and then went to find some type of vine. He saw a wiry vine that seemed thick enough that it could hold the weight of a Blue Gil at the most, so he picked it off of the bush and walked back towards ‘camp’.

When Adam came back with what he found, Tommy was sorta impressed. He had what Tommy had and actually seemed to have found thinner vines and braided them to created a thicker vine that could hold more weight.

“Ready?” Adam asked, looking at Tommy.

“Yeah.” Tommy got up and they headed towards the creek.

~~~~

Sitting down by the fire, watching the flames, Tommy was full of fish and some weird type of wild leaf salad that Adam made. It wasn’t the best meal by far, but it wasn’t the worst Tommy had ever had. Tommy watched as each flame danced with another, swirling in circles before going higher and becoming smoke. The wood was burning nicely, smoldering and warming ever piece of revealed skin on Tommy’s body.

A shift next to him made him look away from the fire. “Hey.” Tommy turned back, not saying anything to Adam’s obvious try at starting a conversation between them. Eyes glued to the fire ahead, he heard Adam’s tired sigh.

“Look Tommy, when can we become friends again? I miss the way we used to hang out and rock out like we’d known each other years and not weeks.”

Tommy furrowed his eyebrows, not taking his eyes off the fire. “I don’t know...”

Out of the corner of his eye, Tommy saw Adam drop his head to his chest with a sigh. Tommy fidgeted and then let go of his legs, sprawling them out as he watched fire dance with fire. He didn’t know what to say to Adam. He was still pissed, but now that pissed became worry because they’ve been missing for a week now and finally escaped this morning. They had no way to contact their families and tell them they were alive(for now), or had any supplies like food, water, things they need to survive. This wasn’t _Man Verses Wild_ and they weren’t Bear Grylls.

“Can we at least try to get along without being at each other’s throats?”

“You just don’t get it. God, you just don’t get it.” Tommy got up and went to the creek. He needed something to drink and to be as far away from Adam as possible. His feelings were intermixing and old ones were resurfacing. He didn’t need Adam to see him like this.

He crouched down and scooped up a handful of water, sipping it and then falling to his ass in a sigh. He put his hands in his hair and closed his eyes, thoughts of before crowding his mind. Adam was getting to him again. He told himself he wouldn’t let Adam get to him anymore, not after that fucking _kiss_. He couldn’t do this right now. They were in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere and no way of finding a way out. He just couldn’t do this. If it was another time, maybe another place, he probably could, could bring up to Adam that he wanted it before it got so crazy, so fucking unnerving that it scared him and he backed out before even trying.

He was still holding on, but he just replaced all of his feelings with anger. He couldn’t help it. He had to get it through to Adam that he wasn’t a puppet on strings bending to his every will. He was someone, someone who had feelings, he actually fucking cares about Adam, still.

“Fuck,” Tommy whispered, rubbing the palms of his hands into his eyes, straining with every bit of his being to just close the thoughts off like he’d done when Adam showed him that all Tommy was was a toy to him. He had a heart and was keeping it from crashing and burning with the need that he felt so deep within him, being kidnapped and stranded couldn’t withhold it anymore than he could when it came to Adam and Tommy’s fucking _feelings_ towards him.

Tommy got up and headed back to the camp area, sat along the fire and resumed his previous position of staring at the flames; blank stares and mind flashing to the kiss, his knees giving out, and the wave of anger he felt towards Adam the moment he got off that stage for making him feel so used.

“It’s getting late. We should probably sleep and then resume our search tomorrow.” Adam’s voice filtered out through his own devastating thoughts. He nodded and laid down, eyes still glued to the flames, now decreasing. He felt Adam come up behind him and then a warm back pressed against his.

He shivered, trying to cover it, but it didn’t seem to work because he felt Adam move and then a tentative arm wrap around his middle, not pulling him closer, just being there, warming him up. Tommy should probably yell at Adam, bitch at him for touching him, but Tommy didn’t, he just stayed where he was watching the flames die out slowly and then nothing.

~~~~

Waking up to softness underneath his face, confused Tommy. Was everything a dream? He opened his eyes and noticed the cotton tee underneath his cheek and then he felt the arm around his waist and his arm around Adam’s waist. He pulled back so fast, it felt like time zeroed in on that one moment for a second before Tommy stood and looked around. The fire was out, smoke still going, but no flame.

“Adam, wake up, we need to go.” Tommy shook Adam a little before his eyes opened.

“Time is it?” Adam mumbled.

“Don’t know, maybe a little after ten?” Tommy got up and walked towards the creek, hearing Adam groan and then get up and follow him.

They headed down the bank, same direction and Tommy was mulling over if he should speak when he heard Adam laugh. He turned and saw Adam smiling and looking ahead.

“What?” Tommy raised and eyebrow.

“I was just remembering that time we went swimming at Monte’s and Lisa put an ice cube down Monte’s pants, making him flail and fall into the water on top of Longineu. You and I spit out our drinks we were laughing so hard because of Monte’s squeal.” Adam chuckled.

Tommy smiled a little. He remembered, but that wasn’t the memory of what he had. He remembered looking over at Adam and seeing how happy and carefree he looked, feelings that were free at the time creeping into his eyes as he watched Adam’s laugh come to life. Tommy shook his head. “Yeah, fun times, huh?”

Adam choked on his laugh and Tommy looked over at him seeing that his face had paled.

“What’s wrong?” Tommy asked. Adam was as pale as a ghost.

“Look.” Adam pointed ahead and what Tommy saw shocked the shit out of him. A shack. Small, but very much there.

“Come on, let’s check it out.” Tommy walked towards the shack with Adam close behind.

When they came up to the door, Tommy pulled it open and peered inside. Nothing was in there but blankets and a canteen. Tommy walked in and picked up the canteen, opening it and sniffing it.

“Water, I think.” Tommy put the canteen down and then picked up a blanket. Nothing was in it. This wasn’t a trap, hopefully.

“Tommy, I’m scared.” The smallness in Adam’s voice made Tommy want to yell at him, tell him to stop being a fucking wimp, but he didn’t. The pang in his chest at the sound won out and Tommy walked over and hugged Adam.

“We’ll get through this, I promise.” Tommy’s heart raced when he felt Adam hug him back.

“This feels like old times, hugging for comfort and nothing at all.”

Tommy pulled back, pain written on his face when he said, “Don’t.”

“Why?” Adam whispered.

“It hurts too much, okay?” Tommy turned around, grabbed the canteen and then went to the creek to fill it up. He needed to get away from Adam.

“Tommy, wait.” Adam was right behind him.

Tommy closed his eyes and dropped his arms at his side. He turned around and opened his eyes, seeing vulnerability in Adam’s.

“What hurts?” Adam asked, stopping in front of Tommy.

“What used to be, talking about it, thinking about it, everything.” Tommy didn’t want to have this discussion in the middle of nowhere, but it seemed like he had no choice.

“What are you talking about?” Adam stepped closer, but Tommy stepped back. He needed the distance for this one. It was easier, they’d had so much distance the last few months, it was just easier now.

“You didn’t see it did you?” Tommy whispered, closing his eyes because that hurt more.

“See what?”

“Everything!” Tommy’s voice got louder with each word. “My feelings, the admiration, want, fucking _need_ every time you were near me. The way you just overlooked it, played me like I play my bass. Do you know how much it hurt to know you only saw me as a toy, some fucked up project that you could just dismiss like nothing needed to change?” Tommy looked at an incredulous Adam and he almost laughed. He knew it.

“What are you saying, Tommy?”

Tommy groaned. Stupid, so fucking stupid. “I’m talking about the way I wanted you and you used me in front of millions of people, not thinking what it would do to me. I distanced myself after that one. Oh believe me when I tell you that it hurt. It hurt more than anything to know that you didn’t wanted me like that, you just wanted me for your own personal puppet show, stringing me along until you completely crushed me.”

“Tommy, I didn’t know! Do you think I’d have done that if I’d have known?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t know.”

Adam grabbed Tommy and kissed him. It wasn’t anything like the kiss that happened a few months ago, this was just for them. In the middle of nowhere, no one to see the way Tommy melted and whined so high, fucking dogs miles away could have heard it. Adam wrapped his arms around Tommy’s waist and Tommy just held on, every feeling, thought and existence coming to life in him once again.

When Adam pulled back, he smiled. “Told you if you didn’t leave that attitude behind, I’d show you what I’d do.”

Tommy groaned and face planted into Adam’s chest. “Did this seriously have to happen when we were trying to find some type of civilization?”

“Actually, there’s a town about two miles back,” Adam said casually.

Tommy looked up at Adam with surprise. “What?”

“I found it while you were fishing. I just needed more time to get you to stop being a little shit and be my friend again, but I guess I got more than I bargained for, huh?”

Tommy punched Adam in the arm. “I would kick your ass right now if I didn’t want to get out of here so fast.”

Adam smiled. “I love your sweet talk.”

Tommy laughed and grabbed Adam, turning around and walking back to the clearing they’d left a few hours ago. Adam wrapped Tommy in his arms and kissed his cheek. Getting kidnapped and then escaping and being stranded wasn’t a rough trade to finally confessing to Adam that he wanted to be with him. Tommy was fine, as long as Adam fed him because he was hungry; preferably tacos because yeah, he wanted something greasy and unhealthy after fish and wild leaf salad from a creek in the middle of nowhere.


End file.
